Identity area
Type of entity
Family
Authorized form of name
Goossen family (Descendants of Jacob *1858)
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Description area
Dates of existence
1885-1985
History
The patriarch of this family is Jacob Johann Goossen (1858-1920), owner of the large and prosperous Wintergruen estate, located about 32 km from the ancestral village of Schoensee, Molotschna Colony. He married Aganetha Kaethler (1861-1946), daughter of Johann Kaethler (1830-1889) from the village of Grossweide, Molotschna in 1884. Jacob and Aganetha had thirteen children, seven of which survived early childhood. Except for a first class holiday trip to Europe and the USA in 1906, to avoid civic unrest in Russia following the Russo-Japanese War, the family continued to live on the estate until October 1918 when they fled for their own safety. On December 10, 1918 the estate was pillaged by Machno bandits. Jacob Goossen died in Halbstadt, Molotschna in 1920.
Maria Goossen (1889-1934), daughter of estate owner Jacob Goossen, left Russia for Canada in 1922 to join and marry her fiancé Abraham A. "A.A." Friesen (1885-1948). Friesen was a member of the Studienkommission (study commission) sent to America by the Mennonites in Russia to investigate emigration possibities. Friesen became the business manager for the Rosthern-based Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBoC), established to facilitate the immigration. This board was responsible for helping over 20,000 Mennonites emigrate from Russia to Canada in the 1920s.
Aganetha (Kaethler) Goossen, the matriarch of this family immigrated to Canada in 1924 with the remaining children (with the exception of the oldest daughter Aganetha (Friesen) Willms who remained in the Soviet Union. She settled at Rabbit Lake, Saskatewan, where A.A. Friesen became manager of the Meilicke Lumber Company in 1927, after he left the CMBoC in 1926. After Maria (Goossen) Friesen died in 1934, A.A. Friesen married Maria's sister Helena in 1935. He died in 1948 in Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan and his second wife Helena (Goossen) Friesen died in 1985 in Winnipeg.
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Sources
Helena Goossen Friesen. Daydreams & Nightmares: Life on the Wintergruen Estate. Winnipeg, Manitoba: CMBC Publications, 1990.